When I finally came to it, I opened my eyes and saw my body had been completely crushed, tiny pieces of my bones littering the cave floor. In the middle of it all lay the Tyrant of the Tombs, motionless.
âDid I succeedâŠ?â
If I had not managed to use Fire Shock at the last second perhaps he would have survived and taken the rest of my limbs. I wondered if I would be able to cast magic without having a left arm, but to be honest It was something I would rather not have to find out first hand.
Just like the first time, I was embedded into the wall from the collision and struggled to wiggle myself out. With my HP at rock bottom my movements were sluggish and I struggled to gather my bone pieces scattered on the floor like a mosaic. This time around it took me 200 ~ 230 hours to collect all my pieces because my condition was much worse. Perhaps it was because compared to the first time, when the Tyrant was just fooling around, it was in a berserk state with its life threatened.
âAh right, did I gain some experience and level up?â
I opened my Status page just as I finished reattaching my left arm.
Surprisingly my level had dropped despite having killed a named monster. Could it be a death penalty? Looking closer I even noticed my stats had dropped slightly.
âHmm⊠can dying be such a big loss? Well⊠oh, wait a minute.â
I quickly checked my Status page to confirm something.
âMaybe not?â
Unfortunately there was no way to verify my hypothesis at the moment so I simply put it to the back of my skull and began to cut apart the giant rodentâs body. I was searching for my missing right arm, expecting to find it half digested in its stomach but all I found were pieces of moss and the bodies of tomb rats.
âWhere did this guy put my right arm?â
Trying my hand at tracking, I retraced its steps and searched several times along its usual roaming routes until I came across a side path I hadnât noticed previously.
âItâs my first time seeing this right?â
Following the new path carefully, I was led to a dead end cave with a mountain of glittering jewels, shiny gold, equipment, and my right arm holding a dagger.
âIs this the Tyrantâs hideout? Is this all of its spoils? Where did all these jewels come from?â
I reattached my right arm and started rummaging through the mountain of spoils looking for something useful. Perhaps I was being too enthusiastic because the pile of jewels and gold collapsed
âWhatâs this?â
I noticed that there was a hole that was previously hidden from sight behind the mountain of treasure. Looking past I noticed it led up to a familiar place with marble walls. The Tyrant had most probably collected all these things from across this hole and brought them back to his hideout.
By holding an item in my hands I could check its properties by simply clicking on the blinking light in the Status page. After going through all the equipment I decided on a red robe, a magically enchanted dagger with an embedded jewel in the hilt and a sturdy round shield with glittering gems.
It seemed like the Tomb Tyrant was very fond of shiny objects. I looked a bit like a hip-hop artist with all this bling but it felt good. I was ready for the new adventure beyond the hole.
âShould I get started?â
I crawled through the hole and ended up in a dark cave in which only the moss emitted a faint light, illuminating the space somewhat allowing me to see some rough silhouettes. When my eyes finally adjusted, I was able to see clearly thanks to the Night Vision skill.
âOh â-â
It had a different vibe compared to the previous place. For one it was a much bigger space and the marble walls were a dull, dark black. The only things I was able to make out in the darkness were a few stone statues and pillars but that alone was enough to stimulate my sense of adventure.
âShould I go take a look around?â
Maybe since I had become a skeleton my concept of danger had changed somewhat. Or is it possible that because Iâm living an adventure then I naturally become braver? In my former world, I would never consider roaming through such a dark and scary place.
I began walking around but even after some time, I hadnât seen any signs of life or movement for that matter. Unlike the previous cave and tunnel system, this area was incredibly vast so I decided to think of it as Catacombs. After some exploring I did find two places that could possibly lead me to other floors but they were both blocked by large iron doors.
I began searching nearby, hoping to find a key or some mechanism to unlock the doors but it was all for naught. There was this one room that had a pile of treasure inside but despite looking carefully I didnât find any keys or useful items.
âIf I take all these treasures could I enjoy a luxurious lifestyle?â
Just as the thought crossed my mind I realised the folly of it and became depressed.
If people were too see a rich skeleton walking around with jewels I would definitely be beaten down and robbed of all my valuables. To top it off, Iâm also a good source of experience points,so Iâll definitely be killed.
âDamn it, why am I a skeleton? Even if I were a gremlin or goblin, I would at least be able to enjoy these jewels.â
My head hung low, dejected by my current situation.
âWell, thereâs nothing I can do about it. Perhaps these treasure might be useful later so letâs just take them.â
Finding two expensive looking pouches nearby I filled them to the brim with jewels, gems and any shiny items before carefully placing them within my robe, out of sight from greedy eyes.
While rummaging through the pile of treasure, I seemed to have knocked a transparent bottle to the floor but fortunately it didnât break. A light within it began to shine.
Huh⊠Whatâs that, a firefly?
Looking closely I noticed a bright, shining fairy-like creature the size of my index finger.
It seemed to be grumbling and malcontent about being stuck in a bottle, but I couldnât make out what it was saying.
I stared at it in the bottle a while longer. It had pointy ears, rich golden hair and the perfect face of a cute Western child from a fantasy game.
However, it appeared very angry at the moment, showing its teeth and seemingly screaming at the top of its lungs but the bottle was well sealed and very little sound was heard.
âShould I set it free?â
I could empathize somewhat with its situation because although I wasnât stuck in a bottle I did feel trapped within these Catacombs.
As their footsteps approached two of the statues around me seemed to gain a life of their own.
âWhat, they werenât normal statues?â
The demon shaped winged statues began to slowly move, shaking off the dust.